A. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a game apparatus simulating the economic development of single or multiple star systems, requiring the plotting of spacecraft trajectories in those single or multiple systems' combined gravitational fields of star and orbiting planets, subject to the constraint upon player economic choices of a universal moral or karmic order, generating synergy between the players' advancement of each's economic interests and the players' sacrifices for the advancement of others.
B. Prior Art
Games preexisting the present invention vary in the degree that they share features of at least two of the present invention's three distinct components --spacecraft navigation, economic competition, and moral dynamic-- and no preexisting game incorporates features of all three said components.
Games involving spacecraft movement over tessellated game boards occur periodically in the market place, their availability being ephemeral, the games often linked to transitory film and television entertainment. In relation to those products, only the present inventor's previous patents U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,184 and Des. Pat. Nos. 247,453, 250,053, and 252,049 realize game apparatus whose interrelation of game rules and polygonal tessellation enable the intuitive and tractable plotting of spacecraft trajectories in the complex gravitational fields of a star and its orbiting planets. And yet, the aforementioned game apparatus only simulate the gravitational fields of a single star and its planets, which limitation the present invention overcomes with a tessellating game board that enables simulation of multiple star planetary systems.
The field of tessellating game boards includes three recent patents which to varying degree approach the present invention in their intent. O'Conner's 1986 "Interchangeable Game Board", U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,344, demonstrates three game boards with the shapes of regular polygons each of which tessellate with congruent game boards and each of which "has an overall pathway design that differs with each arrangement of the congruent game board segments". The pathway designs for different arrangement of congruent game board segments must "differ" or those arrangements would defeat the invention's purpose of overcoming "the sameness of the unchanging and unchangeable network of pathways from one playing of a particular game to the next", which games are of the labyrinth or maze variety. O'Conner's invention's constraint to labyrinth or maze games is realized in its independent claim, which includes game board surfaces "having depicted thereon a labyrinth pathway design whereby the pathway design is a network of individual pathways" and also "at least one of said labyrinth pathway designs further include at least one cul-de-sac pathway". The independent claim also specifies that between adjacent game boards labyrinth paths are formed using entry/exit points that are at the same spaced locations on all sides of the game board segments. Thus,
(1) paths that are allowed between adjacent game boards differ in their extensions within game boards (internal paths) for every distinct conjoining of game board sides, PA0 (2) movement between two adjacent game boards is not allowed at every conjunction of those game boards' internal paths, and PA0 (3) some of those pathways within game boards (internal paths) are closed. PA0 (1) paths interconnecting adjacent game boards are identical for any two game board sides conjoined, PA0 (2) paths of adjacent game boards are not interrupted where they conjoin at their game boards' boundaries, and PA0 (3) paths within a game board are not differentiated by interruption, and therefore none are closed. PA0 (1) Its game board supports traversal of the central star figure using any of the forty eight possible parabolic trajectories (twenty four approaching the star figure with a clockwise curl and twenty four approaching with a counter clockwise curl); which forty eight traversals are traced using the star figure's twelve rays and twelve spaces between rays FIG. 2B-#1,#2 --missing on the Galactiad game board-- and twenty four ring 1 hexagons FIG. 18B --also missing in Galactiad; PA0 (2) Its array easel has a fourth ledge FIG. 5A-#31D upon which are placed fuel markers FIG. 6C designating the fuel supply of the spacecraft marker in whose array column it resides; which fourth array ledge and fuel markers are not present in Galactiad; PA0 (3) Its game rules specify with detailed diagrams, FIGS. 19A,B and FIGS. 20A,B for example, PA0 (4) Its game rules specify with detailed diagrams, FIG. 17 and FIG. 21A,B,C for example, PA0 (5) Its game rules specify with a detailed diagram the increments to a spacecraft marker's fuel marker attendant the varied trajectories with which the spacecraft marker may traverse an outer planet marker (source of spacecraft marker fuel); PA0 (6) The multistellar game board has a region of regular hexagons --termed an interboard region-- formed at the boundary of conjoined game boards that models interstellar space in the game rules governing its traversal by spacecraft markers; PA0 (7) Game rules specify with detailed diagrams PA0 (8) Game rules specify with detailed diagrams for a spacecraft marker commencing a planet marker traversal from an interboard hexagon initial position, PA0 (9) Game rules symmetrical to "8" above that specify with detailed diagrams for a spacecraft marker commencing a planet marker traversal from an intraboard polygon (a polygon in a game board interior) with a trajectory terminating for that move on an interboard hexagon PA0 (11) Game rules specifying hyperspace jump locations and moves initiated thereon which enable spacecraft markers to traverse polygonal paths spanning multiple game boards in a single step; PA0 (1) game boards (both enumerated and unenumerated), PA0 (2) array easels, PA0 (3) game markers, PA0 (4) game rules, and PA0 (5) criteria for winning;
Alternatively, the interconnection of multiple, spherically symmetric stellar gravitational fields is cross-sectionally simulated by the present invention's game board using a tessellation that extends between any two adjacent game boards without interruption the internal polygonal paths of one into the identical internal polygonal paths of the other. Thus,
Saiz's 1994 "Board for the Playing of Multiple Board Games", U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,930, demonstrates a board "composed of an indeterminate number of modules, each one formed by a large number of blocks which surround another block which makes up the center or nucleus of each module, and all of them are differentiated among themselves using color". Thus, the game board characteristic of modular construction that participates in the tessellation concept is circumscribed by (1) the fundamentally indivisible building module being composed in every instance of a nucleus block surrounded by other blocks, (2) "said surrounding blocks exhibiting different colors that differentiate them by pairs of blocks not adjacent to one another" and the nucleus block colored differently than the surrounding blocks, and (3) the color pattern of blocks within a module being identical for all modules. None of these characteristics is shared by the present invention.
Somerville's 1989 "Game Board", U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,268, demonstrates a plurality of congruent game board segments which are tessellated to construct a composing game board, but each segment is distinguished by indicia representing physical objects such as cities, railroads, etc. and none has an internal tessellation.
Games realizing moral themes, whether instruction or dynamic, are rare compared to strategy games. Neff's 1982 "Board Game With Interrelated Cards and Chips", U.S. Pat. No. 4,359,226, embodies the karma concept of repayment in future lives for deeds done in past lives. The game board incorporates a circuit of positions which landed upon require a player to "elect" between a good karma instruction that causes a short term disadvantage and a long term advantage and a bad karma instruction that causes a short term advantage and a long term disadvantage. Thus, a player's karmic or moral circumstance derives from the player's choice to parameterize their unfolding economic prospects in terms of short term and long term advantage. Players do not derive their karmic or moral circumstance from choices they make regarding other players, which would correspond to karma working in the real world.
Masakayan's 1996 "Good News Bible Board Game", U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,308, "teaches spiritual principles as disclosed in the Bible". Players advance upon a board depicting the "tree of life" according to their response to predetermined questions. Thus, there is no interaction between players which manifests moral principles or influences moral destiny modeled by the game.
Munn et al.'s 1983 "Conquest Game", U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,765, combines a spacecraft travel game with an embodiment of a hidden influence in the form of astrological destiny. Herein, the solar system spacecraft traverse is partitioned between the twelve zodiacal sectors, and players receive destiny cards enhancing or diminishing their prospects within designated sectors. Again, the quasi-spiritual astrological influence is static, being contingent upon random selection and not player choice.
Games realizing economic competition are abundant. Tourville's 1986 "Board Game", U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,939, combines in the context of solar system conquest financial and martial features. The game board incorporates distinctly segregated pathways for financial, military, and planetary strategies. Players travel the outermost financial pathways buying industries to achieve what is required to advance to purchasing planet segments, in a pathway interior to the financial pathway, from which they can launch spaceships to establish dominant ownership of planets, which are motionless in their domain. No component of the present invention corresponds to those distinct financial, military, and static planet pathways.
Finally, there is the present inventor's 1979 "Game Apparatus", U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,184, in which the game board articulates within a regular hexagon tessellation a central region of concentrically inscribed rings of contiguous hexagons, wherein spacecraft trajectories in the external regular hexagon tessellation conform to rules modeling inertia and spacecraft trajectories in the concentric ring region conform to rules modeling both inertia and the complex gravitational field of a star with orbiting planets. The 1979 "Game Apparatus" is henceforth referenced Galactiad, the name used in the 1979 "Description of the Preferred Embodiments" section. The present invention shares with Galactiad an underlying navigation component, and features of the two navigation components may be partitioned between those having superficial similarity and those without similarity. Of the superficially similar features, the present invention's features are unique in the following ways:
(a) the amounts of fuel which must be expended to transition a spacecraft marker's orbit between circular, parabolic, and paracircular varieties and PA1 (b) changes in a spacecraft marker's speed given fuel expenditure and orbit transition type; which detailed statement of the interrelations between fuel expenditure, speed, and orbit transition are not present in Galactiad; PA1 (a) the initial orientations of a spacecraft marker to a polygon bearing a planet marker that permit the spacecraft marker to traverse the planet marker, PA1 (b) the permitted planet traversal trajectories, and PA1 (c) changes in speed attendant each traversal trajectory; PA1 (a) the stages of spacecraft marker traversal of interboard regular hexagons, including the coordination of moves of spacecraft markers occupying the same said hexagon, and p1 (b) trajectory changes permitted upon said interboard hexagons and the speed decrements attendant such changes; PA1 (a) the permitted said interboard hexagon initial planet traversal positions, PA1 (b) the permitted planet traversal trajectories, and PA1 (c) changes in speed attendant each traversal trajectory; PA1 (a) the permitted said intraboard polygon initial planet traversal positions, PA1 (b) the permitted planet traversal trajectories, and PA1 (c) changes in speed attendant each traversal trajectory; (10) Game rules specifying stable planet marker orbits --requiring no fuel expenditure to maintain-- encompassing multiple game boards;
Features of the present invention's navigation component that have no (superficially) similar counterparts in Galactiad include the following 6 through 11:
The present invention, apart from navigation component considerations, uniquely differs from Galactiad with regard to the following additional features:
which differences are specified in the following Description of Preferred Embodiments section.